1956 VFL NIGHT PREMIERSHIP

Years of frustration and false starts had seen metropolitan Melbourne fall behind other regions in the race for night football. The deadlock was broken when the South Melbourne Cricket Club (SMCC) decided to invest in four light towers to enable night football, soccer, baseball and other sports to be played at the venue.

*The eight teams that missed the VFL finals series competed for the K.G. Luke Trophy (valued at £75 and donated by VFL President Kenneth Luke) with the winning team receiving a £200 cash prize.

*The Lake Oval was the venue for the series, and also the home ground of the South Melbourne Football Club, so it was natural that the Swans played in the inaugural match. This soon developed into something of a tradition with South playing the opener in ten of the fifteen series they participated in during this era.

*Specially-made white footballs (manufactured by both Sherrin and Ross Faulkner) were used throughout the competition.

*An exhibition match was played in the period between the night series second semi-final and Grand Final. This was a charity match between the teams finishing 3rd (Footscray) and 4th (Geelong) in the VFL premiership. The match was a fundraiser for Operation Gratitude, a massive fundraising campaign for the RSL and Legacy which ran throughout the second half of 1956.

*The series was originally meant to involve VFL and VFA clubs but the VFL chose to go it alone after the SMCC set a deadline of September 12th for the night final to be played (that deadline was later extended to September 17th). The VFA home & away season only ended on September 1st which did not leave enough time for a joint series.

The VFA's frustrations were eased by an assurance they would participate in the 1957 night series. However, they later chose to play night premiership matches at the Lake Oval instead during the 1957 season; a niche market that the VFL had shown no real interest in exploring at that stage. [The Argus 28-9-1956]

*Alcohol consumption was a growing problem during the series with the large crowds transporting in and consuming copious amounts of alcohol. One report of the Richmond-Hawthorn opening round match described night football as "becoming the Mecca of thousands of unruly drinkers, with thousands of empty bottles scattered about the terraces by halftime".[The Argus 31-8-1956]

*For this inaugural series no dividend sharing arrangement with the top-four clubs (who were playing in the VFL finals) was in place. The relatively large night series crowds meant a bottom-eight club that lost their opening round match in the night competition would bank around £700, with the winning club making as much as £2000. This was considerably more than the VFL's top-four clubs who had to divide their finals takings among all 12 clubs.

It was this financial imbalance that led to all clubs taking part in the 1957 Night Series, with the top-four entering the night competition as they were eliminated from the VFL finals race.[The Football Record 14-9-1956 / The Age 20-7-1982]

South Melbourne and Carlton players fight for possession of the white football in the inaugural Night Grand Final [The Age 18-9-1956]

MATCH REPORTS

Listed below are match reports for all 7 games played during the series plus the exhibition match. This is the first time these reports have been collated and published online or in print. Unless otherwise noted the information was sourced from The Football Record and The Age newspaper.